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Automotive giant Toyota is teaming-up with software giant Microsoft in a bid to 'humanise' the driving experience through a new connected vehicle technology venture. Headed by Zack Hicks, CIO and Vice...

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Comtech Telecommunications has announced the arrival of two major Fortune 100 customers to provide location, navigation and messaging to boost the connected car experience.

One of the customers is set to use Comtech’s navigation point-to-point routing and geocoding services. The platform centred on location functions with or without an Internet connection and combines real-time traffic to provide efficient routing. The other customer will use Comtech’s Family Locator to...

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Japanese automotive manufacturer Mazda has become a gold member of the Linux Foundation, paving the way for further progress in the connected car space.

The automaker is set to play a role in the growing open source software stack for the connected car, thereby enhancing the relationship between vehicles and people through the development of its new-generation car connectivity system. The automaker also recently became a member of Automotive Grade Linux, a Linux Foundation...

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A note from connected car technology provider SenseDriver argues the time has come for investment in safer driving technology.

The National Highway Traffic Safety reported an 8.1% year-on-year increase in deaths from motor vehicle crashes in 2015 and as a result auto insurance policy rates have also risen. Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has attributed the rise in deaths to distracted driving on account of phones as cars, despite this, have become safer.

SenseDriver...

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The FBI and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have issued a joint public service announcement (PSA) urging the connected vehicle industry and consumers to remain aware of cybersecurity threats to vehicles.

Both organisations have provided an explanation on how computers are utilised in modern motor vehicles and how a hacker can access vehicle networks and driver data. The PSA issued by the organisations details how vulnerabilities may exist within a...

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The race to bring driverless cars to our roads is in full swing. The automotive and technology industries are vying to be the first to market, while Google will tell you that it has driverless cars and that this technology is already possible. This may be the case on a smaller scale for cars that are connected on a Google metro, but this cannot yet be reflected on a mainstream level.

To make the driverless car a reality for the mass market, we need to understand how sensors, compute, and...

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Vehicle telematics provider Airbiquity has announced it is supporting SmartDeviceLink (SDL) technology, with a view to easier and increased access to infotainment apps for automakers.

At present, automakers are looking to standardise integration approaches that could boost application availability while limiting development time. However, the trade-offs offered by the use of SDL include a decline in cloud-based application management capabilities, fall in application policy management to...

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Self-driving cars are the wave of the future - at least, that’s what every technology publication seems to be saying these days, and honestly, it’s tough to argue with the idea. Many experts believe self-driving cars could become a common sight on the roads in as little as five years. Some are pushing off their predictions to 10 or 15 years down the line, but they all seem to agree that self-driving cars will become a permanent fixture at some...

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Statista’s Digital Market Outlook (DMO) estimates that approximately 8.6 million intelligent cars will be on UK roads by 2020, up from close to 1.8 million in 2016. Across the globe, the figure will reach 160 million vehicles by 2020. Though Google and Apple have already made moves in this market, Microsoft is looking to take this market by storm.

The DMO estimates that the largest segment of this market is security and driving assistance and not infotainment. China is...

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Ford has revealed details on how its self-driving vehicle – the Ford Fusion Hybrid – will manoeuvre itself on snow-covered roads in winter.

The company's winter weather road testing is undertaken in Michigan, including at Mcity – a 32-acre, real-world driving environment at the University of Michigan.

To operate in snowy conditions, Ford Fusion Hybrid autonomous vehicles first have to scan the environment and formulate high-resolution 3D digital maps. This is done...

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Picturing your loved ones travelling in a vehicle being controlled or tracked by an unauthorised third-party should terrify you, but new research from Kelley Blue Book points towards consumers being less concerned by vehicle hacks now than just six months ago. 

"More vehicle hacking entry points exist...

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A report from Juniper Research argues that ‘range anxiety’ among car buyers is the primary challenge for automotive OEMs to overcome in order to boost adoption of hybrid and electric cars.

In order to provide an alternative to the combustion engine vehicle market, Tesla and Chevrolet are working towards providing a mileage range of over 200 miles on a fully charged vehicle. As a result, Juniper anticipates 17 million hybrid and electric vehicles on the road by 2020, up from an...

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Following the increase in awareness at CES, Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) has been able to add four new members in the form of Collabora, HI Corporation, MediaTek and Witz Corporation to its open source project aimed at formulating a common, Linux-based software stack for the connected car.

The project hosted its bi-annual all-member meeting on February 23 in Tokyo at the Panasonic Center. Members, from the automotive, communications and semiconductor industries to individual...

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Audi has announced an expansion of its partnership with telco giant AT&T over provision of high speed Internet to Audi vehicles in North America.

The renewed agreement will facilitate the addition of many new features to the Audi Connect system in select 2017 and 2018 models. The features include new safety, security and infotainment features, such as remote lock and unlock, stolen vehicle locator, online roadside assistance and service requests over the AT&T...

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A report commissioned by Veracode and undertaken by the International Data Corporation (IDC) has found that almost half of UK drivers (49%) are apprehensive about the security of driver-aid applications, such as adaptive cruise control, self-parking, and collision avoidance systems.

The survey results reveal an even level of concern as regards the safety of the entire vehicle, while auto manufacturers have also revealed that their security offerings may be three years behind and will...

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Automotive products and systems provider Valeo has chosen Sierra Wireless to build and collaborate on the development of next generation telematics control units.

The new units will first find themselves in vehicles built by the global automaker Geely for the Russian market. The solution will power the emergency response system that is required under ERA-GLONASS for new vehicles in Russia. Geely is a multinational automaker with international subsidiaries, including Volvo and...

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Automotive security experts Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) argue that three in four cars shipped in 2020 will come with integrated connectivity.

G&D anticipates registrations of vehicles in 2020 to total 92 million, of which close to 69 million (75%) will carry integrated connectivity. Scotiabank argues that close to 70 million passenger cars were registered in 2014, of which 10% were equipped with connectivity. By 2020, 1.1 billion vehicles are expected to be on the road, of...

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Long distance ridesharing service provider BlaBlaCar has announced it is using database provider MariaDB to supplement the company’s exponential growth.

BlaBlaCar is seeing rapid growth as it expands, currently possessing 25 million members across 22 countries, especially in India and Brazil.

Nicolas Blanc, head of platform architecture at BlaBlaCar, is used to enhancing the service for users of its applications while catering to the requirements of development and marketing...

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HARMAN International Industries has become a part of the Intelligent Car Coalition, an advocacy group that looks to take forward innovation in connected car public policy.

The development sees HARMAN continue its engagement with companies and trade associations in the communications and automotive industries towards ascertaining the impact of connected car technologies on federal legislative and regulatory initiatives.

HARMAN joins members of the coalition, including AT&T, the Auto...

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A letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to Google has opened the door for the tech giant’s self-driving car system to be legally viable on US roads.

The letter, from NHTSA chief counsel Paul Hemmersbaugh to Google self-driving car chief Chris Urmson, grants “several” of Google’s requests for...